IBBL celebrates its 10th anniversary at the service of Luxembourg’s biomedical research

Luxembourg, 9 November 2018 – IBBL (Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg) celebrates this quarter the 10th anniversary of its creation. On this occasion, a celebration has been organised today, bringing together all key stakeholders of Luxembourg’s medical and research landscape and providing a stimulating setting for debating on the future of research infrastructures and personalised medicine.

Established in 2008 under the National “Health Sciences and Technologies Action Plan”, IBBL has been contributing over the past decade to Luxembourg’s position as an internationally-renowned centre of excellence in the field of biomedical research and personalised medicine. Since the beginning, the biobank’s mission has been to support Luxembourg’s research community, whilst establishing and developing international partnerships in Europe and beyond. At the national and regional level, some of the key projects to which it has brought its expertise include the National Centre for Excellence in Research on Parkinson’s Disease (NCER-PD), the SOCS project on colon cancer, the National Cancer Plan and a major lung cancer programme, among others.

To commemorate IBBL’s achievements since its foundation and express its gratitude to the stakeholders that have made its success possible – particularly the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy, as well as all national actors and its dedicated staff – a celebratory event is taking place at its new premises in Dudelange on November 9th. The event features a series of official speeches and video projections, as well as a panel discussion on the evolving role of research infrastructures in personalised medicine. The panellists include national and European experts in the fields of biobanking, clinical trials, translational medicine and Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. The panel session is followed by a guided tour of IBBL’s cutting-edge laboratories.

“The last 10 years have been an immense satisfaction”, says Dr. Catherine Larue, IBBL’s CEO. “We have witnessed the transformation of our biobank from a ‘project’ – a prefabricated building and a small team of motivated scientists – to an established player in biomedical research, employing 49 dedicated staff. Our collection now boasts nearly 600,000 biological samples, including blood, urine, tissue and saliva. Since our move to the new facilities in November 2017, we have been able to support an increasing number of national research projects, as well as European consortia, with the ultimate goal of improving patient care in Luxembourg and beyond. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Luxembourg’s Ministries for ‘planting’ the initial seeds of high-quality research ‘made in Luxembourg’, to all researchers and clinicians working by our side since the beginning, and to our passionate staff for continuously nurturing such seeds into impactful research outcomes”.

Over a hundred guests from the health, research and political sectors are expected at the celebration.